On 28 Jan 2007 09:30:40 -0800, "Starboard" wrote:

Tell me this: Did the entire universe that we know today expand from a
point? What is it exactly that is expanding? I visualize it as light
from the early universe radiating out, pushing the frontier in all
directions, creating new space, as we speak?

If by "point" you mean a 3-dimensional location, then the answer is no.
The expansion of the Universe isn't the spreading out of matter and
energy (which seems to be the way you imagine it), but the spreading out
of the "stuff" the Universe itself is made of. The expansion is
occurring in a higher dimension, so there is no 3D point that can be
identified with the center. Others have already pointed out a useful
analogy, if you can get your mind wrapped around it: when you blow up a
balloon, the 2D surface of the balloon is getting larger. It is
expanding about a 3D point at the center of the balloon, but that point
doesn't exist in the 2D world of the balloon's surface. In the same way,
our perceived 3D universe can be getting larger even though we have no
way of localizing the center of that expansion, which is a 4D (or
higher) point.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com